I am working really hard at listening to the radio and actually understanding what they are saying. And not just when they are saying the names of songs by American bands. That, I get. No, I want to be able to really REALLY understand.
I understand when they give the date and time. (Sounds easy, but they don’t say today is Tuesday the 19th of February. oh, no, that would be too easy. They say, literally, we are the 19 February.) I understand when there is a traffic jam on the interstate, even if I’m not exactly sure where it is.
I know that one station gives recipes each morning. Today it was for some sort of fish… with sauce.. I didn’t get much past putting the fillet in a hot pan.
I know another station with the requisite moronic morning dj team (my apologies, Todd) plays stupid quiz games with callers. They sing the questions to a tune that I don’t know but I also hear on a commercial for I’m not sure what… that makes it hard to understand. When they do actually just speak, I can normally figure out what the question is.
I’m also trying to listen to the news. Today I heard a story about paintings and a parked car in Zürich! I’m not saying I got everything about the story (which I later looked up online in English) but I got part of it.. they recovered two of the stolen paintings!
Now if only I could understand people who call me on the phone.
Solution: Have persons needing to speak with you call in to the radio station show, since you are able to understand the questions when they speak them on the air.